Summit Town Board approves village petition

Oconomowoc Focus, Mar. 9 2006

Jonna Clark
Staff writer

Town of Summit - The Town Board approved drafting a petition and drawing up a legal description of the town last week as part of its quest to become a village.

The Town of Summit has undertaken the process to gain village status partly due to its joint efforts with Aurora Health Care to put a new hospital in Pabst Farms.

The Town of Summit got a no-vote last year from the Waukesha County Board when it tried to amend its master plan to allow Aurora to build an 88-bed hospital in the town as a replacement for the aging Wilkinson Clinic. That action left the town and Aurora with only lawsuits as options for determining the land use in question.

Unlike villages or cities, towns are bound by county approval of their land use and zoning amendments.

The application fee to the state for consideration of the request is $20,000. The entire process, from start to finish, is estimated to cost $150,000.

Legal, engineering and research and data collection is included in that cost.

The steps the town will have to take - in what may be an 18-month process - include circulating a petition signed by townspeople requesting village status.

A certain number of town residents will need to sign the petition, based on voting population numbers. Then the petition and application will be filed with the circuit court and reviewed.

After that, the state administration board will make a recommendation based on whether the town has shown it meets the requirements necessary for village status.

Requirements include proof of a developed community center with such features as retail stores, churches, a post office, telecommunications exchange and similar centers of community activity.

Also to be weighed are population density and the level of service requirements needed by residents as compared to level of services offered by the proposed village and or surrounding municipalities.

According to the League of Wisconsin Municipalities' Web site, cities and villages in the state are expected to provide street maintenance and snow plowing, sewer, water and electricity, police and fire protection, garbage collection, libraries, parks and recreation, zoning and planning, and public transportation.

There are 190 cities and 396 villages in Wisconsin, and they encompass about 70 percent of the state's population. There are 1,264 towns in Wisconsin governing those areas of Wisconsin that are not included within the corporate boundaries of cities and villages.

According to the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, in Wisconsin, cities and villages have long been considered "full" or "true" municipal corporations, different from counties and towns.

Cities and villages in Wisconsin are different from other units of local government, such as towns and counties, because they have more power to govern themselves in local matters without state interference.

Cities and villages are granted broad authority under the Wisconsin Constitution and statutes granting cities and villages what is commonly known as "home rule."

Also, cities and villages, unlike towns and counties, can expand their boundaries through the annexation of unincorporated territory.

Cities and villages can also create tax incremental finance districts, while towns lack such authority.

Residents in cities and villages can initiate ordinances and resolutions through the direct legislation process; citizens in towns lack that power.

Unlike cities and villages, a town has only those powers that are conferred by statute or may be necessarily implied from the statute.

According to the League of Wisconsin Municipalities, earlier in the state's history, built-up or urban territory was almost exclusively city and village, and towns were located almost exclusively in rural territory.

Cities and villages often had higher populations than towns.

Today, things have changed, with urban territory often a mixture of incorporated and unincorporated areas. Some towns in the state are more populated and more urban in character than many cities and villages.